Might be the set of speakers is getting old and just about done. Can he check with another set of speakers???

If the sounds are coming from the speakers then it might be just when the computer looks for updates online for the various programs. If it comes from the tower itself then perhaps it is as the hard drive activates, mine is a noisy hard drive but the particular model is known for that. Keeping a computer running or not is purely a personal choice, neither way is right or wrong necessarily. I ran mine for years when they were doing some distributed computing trying to find a cure for cancer. Never hurt them at all, just the hydro bill. Still run mostly 24/7 through laziness I s'pose. Wouldn't hurt to hang on to the box for a while, once you are satisfied the computer is running good than you might decide to get rid of the box.

And even worse if it is not a fan it could be the hard drive starting to fail, some will get weird noises prior to failing. IF that happens your info will be stuck on a dead drive. Any time a pc starts making unusual noise it is time to take a trip to the pc doctor LOL

No software. However, I do have the sound working again. Using the HP help on the computer itself, I reset everything and still nothing. I decided to recheck the connections, since I was in semi-darkness when I connected the speakers. Yep, I had the sound cable plugged into the "IN" port rather than "Sound Out" port. That doesn't explain why I had sound briefly the other day after installing Java. That will remain a mystery. Now I just hope it continues to work.